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February 4, 2024

The anticipation is not titillating. Bud Light has announced plans for a new Super Bowl commercial where it promises a return to “funny.” The kind of “funny” beer drinkers used to associate with the brand before it went woke.

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But this year will be different says Kyle Norrington, Anheuser-Busch’s chief commercial officer who is charged with resurrecting the once-dominant national beer brand. Fittingly for the venue, the Super Bowl ad appears to be a “Hail Mary” pass for a brand which committed marketing suicide last April, and since then it has refused to do the most basic and obvious things needed to restore trust with its core consumer. 

Norrington told the Wall Street Journal that in its planned 60-second Bud Light Super Bowl commercial, “You’re going to see what… our brand lovers expect, which is some really funny advertising.”  He added that the spot will introduce a new brand character and continue to rely on its current milquetoast tagline, “Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy,” because everyone knows beer drinkers find other beers more complicated and difficult to drink or enjoy.

A Case of Marketing Hari Kari

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Since Bud Light has not yet released the ad, the world must sit and wait for the big game, and in the meantime buy another round of Miller Lites while considering how the brand got here.

Last April, Bud Light tapped a transgender influencer named Dylan Mulvaney to help it court the much sought-after beer-drinking demographic of men who think they’re women. This was the brainchild of the brand’s then head of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid. The Harvard-educated brand manager had apparently revealed her disdain for the brand’s core marketing demographic in a podcast interview where she said she wanted to get the brand’s marketing away from “fratty, sort of out of touch humor.”

This all came to light when controversy erupted over the Mulvaney spots which depicted him in a bubble bath, surrounded by Bud Light cans emblazoned with his image on them. Oddly, millions of working and middle class straight men who were loyal brand customers at the time were turned off. Not only were they turned off, but they were a little insulted, too.

In a marketplace with so many options, beer drinkers choose beers they like, that they can afford, and that they can identify with. Up until Mulvaney entered the picture, Bud Light had given its consumers all three and in return, its customers rewarded it by making it the most dominant beer brand in America.

Throwing Money at the Problem

As of January 20, 2024, Bud Light Sales were down 29.9 percent year over year when compared to the same period last year, according to Bump Williams Consulting. The brand has been knocked off its pedestal as the top-selling beer brand in America. Repeated attempts to reconcile its relationship with its customers have fallen flat.